I had thought about posting it within two hours of it happening.. The Australian government sponsored national TV network immediately dropped all regular programming and went to a direct feed of NHK/English..

I have a friend in one of the affected prefectures. No word yet. It's bad, really bad. Best wishes to anyone out there, hope you make it just fine! We get earthquakes in Afghanistan, but never like that. Magnitude 8, I wish that upon no-one.

The Bandito wrote:
In a few years, no doubt, you'll be able to buy a computer,
software and operating system that will match the capabilities
of your current Amiga at about the price you paid for the
Amiga way back when. But you can smile to yourself, knowing
that you were touching the future years before the rest of
the world. And that other computers and operating systems
will do with brute force what the Amiga did years before with
grace, elegance and style.

I remember worrying about that place when they first mentioned they ahd cooling problems and thought thit was going to all be okay in a day.
Of course, it exploding was the first thing I wake up to this morning....
Hopefully that is the climax of the situation there.

I know people in a suburb of Tokyo however while I have not heard if they are alright yet, I would assume they are all fine as they were still quite far.

I'm glad they weren't gas or sodium-cooled (sodium cooled for obvious reasons: leak+flooding=very bad problem, considering that the sodium is usually radioactive, and gas because the fuel cladding is usually not as good as is in place at a water-cooled reactor).

I'm glad they weren't gas or sodium-cooled (sodium cooled for obvious reasons: leak+flooding=very bad problem, considering that the sodium is usually radioactive, and gas because the fuel cladding is usually not as good as is in place at a water-cooled reactor).

I was just parroting something I read in a newspaper along the lines of "fortunately they don't use heavy water so a Chernobyl like event is unlikely".. Seems I was misinformed.

Edit:
I can't find the news article that referenced the light water/heavy water "expert" comment, however..

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/threemetre-tsunami-heading-for-disaster-zone-new-quake-shakes-japan-as-battle-waged-against-nuclear-meltdown-20110313-1bt30.html wrote:
Experts noted, however, that even a complete meltdown would probably be far less severe than the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, where a reactor exploded and sent a cloud of radiation over much of Europe. That reactor, unlike the ones in Fukushima, was not housed in a sealed container.

I think that the newspaper is pro-nuclear even though Australia only has one reactor (for nuclear medicine and university research)..

so i managed to get hold of my friends (that doesn't say much though with so many people involved) and they confirmed that half of the cell phones were not (some still do not) working due to the disaster (and also the fact that everyone was trying to call everyone else)

fu wrote:
so i managed to get hold of my friends (that doesn't say much though with so many people involved) and they confirmed that half of the cell phones were not (some still do not) working due to the disaster (and also the fact that everyone was trying to call everyone else)

Considerating Fukushima's situation, whether or not half of Japan's cell phones were working is of no importance. Either way, these people have a major problem. How long will it take for the radioactivity to reach the West Coast?

If man would have been created out of the rib of a woman - how different would the world be?

Oskar45 wrote:
Considerating Fukushima's situation, whether or not half of Japan's cell phones were working is of no importance. Either way, these people have a major problem. How long will it take for the radioactivity to reach the West Coast?

fu wrote:
so i managed to get hold of my friends (that doesn't say much though with so many people involved) and they confirmed that half of the cell phones were not (some still do not) working due to the disaster (and also the fact that everyone was trying to call everyone else)

Considerating Fukushima's situation, whether or not half of Japan's cell phones were working is of no importance. Either way, these people have a major problem. How long will it take for the radioactivity to reach the West Coast?

Radiation levels away from the reactor buildings themselves appear to be dropping as of the early hours this morning UK time. Japan's nuclear regulators reported as of the early hours this morning (17th March) that readings at the plant gates had dropped from 0.7 millisievert/hour to 0.3 over the previous 12 hours: workers would be able to endure such levels for months if required, as these hourly doses are equivalent to those sustained by everyone on Earth from background radiation every few weeks.

!m!

Doing that Lone Wolf thing. Without the ninja killing and revenge.

Mac Book Pro 13" Running Lion.
All SGI's now in the hands of people that will use them more.